2014 Year of The Artisan

“It’s cool to be an Artisan”

Dr Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education and Training has officially declared 2013: The year of the Artisan.

As Dr Nzimande explains, for South Africa as a country, one of our biggest priorities is to develop qualified artisans to support our economy. To successfully deliver on our country's Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs), we need artisans. These SIPs were announced by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address in 2012. South Africa's SIPs include the building and construction of:

• Roads
• Schools
• Universities
• Harbours
• Power stations
• Other social and economic infrastructure.

The growth of industry requires a significant number of qualified and competent artisans. The department of Higher Education and Training has invested billions of rands into the further development of FET Colleges. The goal is to develop these into institutions of choice, so that we will not have to import skills from other countries in order to deliver on our Strategic Infrastructure Projects. Government views the production of artisans and other mid-level skills as a priority, and hence the official declaration of 2013 as “The Year of the Artisan”.

In a recent article titled "Working with My Hands", Career Planet Roving Reporter Terrence Khonkhobe describes the thoughts of a committed artisan: "We all have to have a plan for our lives, but cannot expect someone else to."

This young South African's words echo the thoughts of many of our country's youth: "I want to promote black entrepreneurship in this country. I am proud to be working with my hands - it's something special to train your brain rather than simply watching a machine doing a job for you. I don’t like the way technology is challenging our lives. For us as human beings to always be debating about jobs and employment will never get us anywhere because the very technology we are using is the same one that is decreasing employment in our country. For example, in construction, we use machines most of the time, instead of hiring more people to do a particular job. That is why I realised that for me to wait for someone to come and give me a job is so difficult as I doubt that he or she might choose the machine to do the job and leave me still hanging."